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Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

New World Tragedy

The weight of English settlement and the appetite for land led to two wars and shocking atrocities against Native people.


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“It is too furious, and slays too many men.”

- Narragansett reaction to the burning of a Pequot village

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Illustration from Cassell’s History of the United States by Edward Ollier (c. 1900) depicting the attack on the Pequot fort near present-day Mystic, Connecticut, where a Pequot village was surrounded, set on fire, and those attempting to escape were shot down.
Attack on the Pequot Fort
Near present day Mystic Connecticut a Pequot village was surrounded and set on fire. Those attempting to escape were shot down.
- Illustration from Cassell's History of the United States by Edward Ollier (c 1900).
Period image by John Underhill depicting a surrounded Pequot village where approximately 400 men, women, and children were massacred. Narragansett allies of the English were shocked at the European practice of total war.
This period image by John Underhill depicts a surrounded Pequot village. Approximately 400 men, women and children were massacred. Narraganset allies of the English were shocked at the European practice of total war.

Imperial Ambitions
 Early Massachusetts was somewhat cramped geographically. The Charles and Merrimack Rivers did not offer navigation far inland while the Connecticut River had more potential for trade. Rhode Island also offered land for expansion. Authorities in Plimoth and Boston began to encroach on their southern neighbors. Demands were made that leaders of the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Niantic, and Pequot nations comply with directives or appear in person for pressure and reprimand. Refusal was seen as “insolence.”

Colonial Wars
In 1637 soldiers from Massachusetts allied with native warriors, including the Narraganset, to suppress the Pequot nation. Precipitating factors included the killing of a disreputable English sea captain by the Pequots, but control of land and wampum (refined sea shells used as money by the colonists) were significant factors. Many Pequot survivors were enslaved. In 1675 Massasoit’s son King Philip led a massive, regionwide revolt. On a per capita basis it had the highest death rate of any American war.

Bleak World View
 Many Puritans saw war as an absolute struggle between good and evil. “Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion?” wrote Captain John Underhill. “When a people is grown to such a height of blood, and sin against God and man… Sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with the parents… We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings.” “God was above them”…wrote John Mason, “making them as a fiery Oven...Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen.”

The Great Swamp Fight
In the “Great Swamp Fight,” during King Philip’s War, a Narraganset fort that was hidden in the woods near the present day University of Rhode Island was surrounded and burned by colonial forces. The incident occurred in wintery December weather in 1675 and resulted in the death of hundreds of Indian men, women and children.


Photograph of the Great Swamp Fight Monument located in the Great Swamp State Management Area, West Kingston, Rhode Island, commemorating the battle that took place on December 19, 1675, during King Philip’s War.

The Great Swamp
Fight Monument. 

Plaque describing how dead and dying English soldiers were carried from the battlefield to Smith’s Castle in present-day Wickford, Rhode Island, where forty men were buried in a mass grave.

Dead and Dying

Document from the Massachusetts Archives stating that in 1675, Governor Josiah Winslow of the Plimoth Colony was chosen as “Captain General or Commander in chief” for the United Colonies, with full power to find and destroy the Narragansett enemy and other native fighters

“Captain General or Commander in chief"